Life Cycle of A Star

TAUNGOO UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS
STUDY ON LIFE CYCLE OF

STARS
By
Group No IV
TAUNGOO UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS
Date of Seminar : 28.9.17
Title : The Life cycle of a star
Candidate : Group No. IV(3Hons Phys-25 to32)
Supervisor : Dr Yu Yu Nge
Lecturer
Department of Physics
ABSTRACT
Stars are born in nebulae. Huge clouds of dust and gas collapse
under gravitational forces, forming protostars. These young stars
undergo further collapse, forming main sequence stars. Stars expand
as they grow old. As the core runs out of hydrogen and then helium,
the core contacts and the outer layers expand, cool, and become less
bright. This is a red giant or a red super giant (depending on the
initial mass of the star). It will eventually collapse and explode. Its
fate is determined by the original mass of the star; it will become
either a black dwarf, neutron star, or black hole.
Keyword: protostars, main sequence stars, a red giant, a red super
giant, a black dwarf, neutron star, black hole.
INTRODUCTION
 A star is a luminous globe of gas producing its own

heat and light by nuclear reactions (nuclear fusion).
They are born from nebulae and consist mostly of
hydrogen and helium gas. Surface temperatures range
from 2000 ̊ C to above 30,000 ̊ C and the
corresponding colours from red to blue-white. Stars are
formed in clouds of gas and dust, known as nebulae.
Nuclear reactions at the centre (or core) of stars
provides enough energy to make them shine brightly for
many years. The exact lifetime of a star depends very
much on its size. Very large, massive stars burn their fuel
much faster than smaller stars and may only last a few
hundred thousand years. Smaller stars, however, will last
for several billion years, because they burn their fuel
much more slowly.
TYPES OF STARS
Protostar: very young star that is still
gathering mass from its parent molecular
cloud. For a one solar-mass star it lasts
about 100,000 years.
T Tauri Star: stage in a star’s formation

and evolution right before it becomes a
main sequence star.
Stars will remain in the T Tauri stage for
about 100 million years.
Main Sequence Star: The majority of all

stars in our galaxy, and even the
Universe, are main sequence stars.
Our Sun is a main sequence star
Red Giant Star: increases the luminosity
of the star enormously ( up to 1000 times
the Sun) and it expands.
Its size is now equal to the orbit of
Mercury or Venus or even the Earth.
White Dwarf Star: When a star has

completely run out of hydrogen fuel in its
core and it lacks the mass to force higher
elements into fusion reaction, it becomes
a white dwarf star.
Red Dwarf Star: Red dwarf stars are the

most common kind of stars in the
Universe. These are main sequence stars
but they have such low mass that they’re
much cooler than stars like our Sun.
Neutron Stars: If a star has between
1.35 and 2.1 times the mass of the Sun,it
doesn’t form a white dwarf when it dies.
Neutron stars are very hot and typically
have a surface temperature around 6×105
K. The gravitational field at the neutron
star's surface is about 2×1011 times that
of the Earth's.
Supergiant Stars: The largest stars in

the Universe are supergiant stars.
Supergiants are consuming hydrogen fuel
at an enormous rate and will consume all
the fuel in their cores within just a few
million years. Supergiant stars live fast
and die young, denoting as supernovae;
completely disintegrating themselves in
the process.
DIFFERENT SIZES OF STARS
Low-Mass Stars: Any star half or less the mass of our

sun is considered a low-mass star.
Sun-Like Stars: Any star with equal or approximately

equal mass as our sun is considered a sun-like star.
High-Mass Stars: Any star with a much greater mass

than our sun is considered a high-mass star.
TIMELINE AFTER MAIN SEQUENCE
LOW-MASS STARS
1. Star grows in size as its hydrogen layer is burned away.

2. Star begins to collapse and shrink as its hydrogen fuel
dissipates.
3. Star continues collapsing due to its inability to produce helium
burning.
4. Star grows so small and cold that only a gaseous pressure
contradicts gravity.
5. Minuscule, dark star progressively fades away.
6. After losing most of its regular pressure and temperature,
having decreased in size tremendously, the low-mass star turns
into a dim black dwarf star.
Figure.1. The life cycle of a low mass-star
SUN-LIKE STARS
1. Star grows to become a red giant as hydrogen

burning causes an increase in the size, of the star.
2. Red giant star’s outer layers of hydrogen and
helium are released from the star, forming a
planetary nebula.
3. Star within planetary nebula begins to expand due
to helium burning, triggered by high temperature
and pressure levels in the core of the star.
4. Star collapses inside planetary nebula after its
helium shell is burned away, causing it to cool down
into a white dwarf star.
5. New white dwarf star gradually fades and cools until
it becomes a black dwarf star.
Figure.2 The lif.e cycle of sun - like star
HIGH-MASS STARS
1. Star begins hydrogen burning, growing in size as its hydrogen
reserves are lowered.
2. High pressure and heat cause the high-mass star to turn into
either a red giant star or supergiant star.
3. Red giant star/supergiant star creates heavy elements, such as
iron, inside of itself through nuclear reactions at its core.
4. After reaching the point in which the red giant/ supergiant star
has made the heaviest element it can form, iron, the star
collapses and explodes into a supernova, producing even denser
elements with more weight in the process.
5. In the aftermath of the supernova, the collapsed star could turn
into either a neutron star or a black hole depending on its solar
mass before the supernova.
 If the high-mass star remnant is over 1.4 solar masses, it will
collapse to form a neutron star.
 If the high-mass star remnant is over 3.0 solar masses, it will
collapse to form a black hole.
Figure.3 The life cycle of a high mass - star
Figure.4 The life cycle of stars
THE ENDING OF LIFETIMES
Once a high-mass star reaches its stellar end point, the

ultimate stage of development in a star, it either turns into a
neutron star or black hole varying on the remnant of a
supernova. If this remnant is 1.4 solar masses or larger, then
the destroyed high-mass star will become a neutron star.
However, if the remnant surpasses 3.0 solar masses, then the
collapsed high-mass star will become a black hole. Like
neutron stars, black holes are one of the many rare and
spectacular phenomena produced by the death of a star,
demonstrating that a star’s life continues on even after its
primary period of activity.
This project deals the size of the stars and the life
cycle of stars with their sizes. As if nature created all
things, living and non-living, alike, the stars in our
nighttime skies are not much different than the people of
Earth. All stars that reach the main sequence are formed
in a similar manner, through the formation and activation
of a protostar, but what lies between the main sequence
and their stellar end points can vary. Some stars, with
lower mass dissipate quickly due to rapid cooling, and
turn into white and black dwarfs. Others with higher mass
grow through hydrogen burning, becoming supergiant
stars and, eventually, supernovae.
References
1.Alexander J. Hawkins.Information documented from DK

Smithsonian UNIVERSE Definitive Visual Guide
2.Laughlin, Gregory; Bodenheimer, Peter; Adams, Fred C. (1997).
"The End of the Main Sequence". The Astrophysical Journal. 482:
420–432
3.http://www.telescope.org/pparc/res8.html
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_evolution#cite_ref-1
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor

Dr Myat Htut, PhD (YU) Head of Department of Physics,
Taungoo University, for his kind help with very effective
suggestions, advice and encouragement throughout this
research work.
Thanks are also due to Professor Dr Nge Nge Khaing, PhD
(MDY), Department of Physics, Taungoo University, for her
kind help, guidance and invaluable suggestions.
Our sincere and deepest gratitude to our research
supervisor, Dr Yu Yu Nge, Lecturer, Department of Physics,
Taungoo University, for her kind valuable suggestions,
useful helps and especially for enthusiastic reading of the
manuscript throughout the course of writing.

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TAUNGOO UNIVERSITY

STUDY ON LIFE CYCLE OF

Date of Seminar : 28.9.17

Title : The Life cycle of a star

Candidate : Group No. IV(3Hons Phys-25 to32)

 A star is a luminous globe of gas producing its own

T Tauri Star: stage in a star’s formation

Main Sequence Star: The majority of all

White Dwarf Star: When a star has

Red Dwarf Star: Red dwarf stars are the

Supergiant Stars: The largest stars in

Low-Mass Stars: Any star half or less the mass of our

Sun-Like Stars: Any star with equal or approximately

High-Mass Stars: Any star with a much greater mass

1. Star grows in size as its hydrogen layer is burned away.

1. Star grows to become a red giant as hydrogen

Once a high-mass star reaches its stellar end point, the

1.Alexander J. Hawkins.Information documented from DK

We would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor

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